So, a bit about me, I bought my first home, a fixer-upper, in '97, followed shortly after by 2 duplexes and interspersed over the next 10 years with a few HUD flips and another personal residence that was a HUD foreclosure as well that I sold for a nice profit.

Hi GuysAn interesting scenario:I am currently renting a nice house from a family member (i.e. using it as my home) for only £200/month (it would normally fetch £600-£700 per month on the open market).What I wonder is, should I:1. continue to rent it for quite cheap money and focus on building a property portfolio of rental property. i.e. invest the money saved from purchasing a property for myself to live in, in rental properties (i.e. rent out to tenants) and continue renting my own residence also at £200/month.2.

Investment or personal residence?

IMHO, investing (rentals) and residences are different sort of beasties.

He surprised me by noting that, at least in the area he specializes in, which probably has about 3-400,000 residents, the situation for a newbie investor like me is grim.

In my opinion this is the better bet since it is his personal residence.

Residency etc.Ppl will always get new job, relocation, transfersAnd sadly ppl will be over their heads with debt.Ppl will be forced to down sizePpl will be put to homes or die.And on the other side is commercial.

I had one guy get a contract on a place just to show residency to scam the government in another state to prove he had occupancy so he could continue collecting from them monthly.

Only the resident agent is public information and that person does not have to be an owner of the company.

I will mostly likely reside northern Seattle/Snohomish area, which is determined by my job placement somewhere in the manufacturing industry of Washington.